From the atlas
Sugrue South Downs
At A Glance
Sugrue South Downs is a Sussex producer of sparkling and still wine, made by Dermot and Ana Sugrue. Dermot planted a small vineyard at Storrington Priory in West Sussex in 2006; the first wine, The Trouble With Dreams 2009, reached the market in 2013. That beginning now sits behind a five-vineyard operation spanning East and West Sussex.
The range moves between traditional-method sparkling wine and still Chardonnay. Rock Story MV uses six English vintages and 40% reserve wine, while Bonkers V2 takes Chardonnay through flor ageing, controlled oxidation, oak fermentation and vintage blending.
The Producer
Dermot and Ana Sugrue make wines that begin in Sussex vineyards but do not stay inside one formula. The Trouble With Dreams established the project as a sparkling-wine producer with its 2009 vintage; Rock Story MV and the Bee Tree wines extend that work across different sites and vintages, while Bonkers V2 puts still Chardonnay through a markedly different cellar route.
Ana joined full-time in 2021 as fellow winemaker and sales director after teaching winemaking at Plumpton College and working in wineries on four continents. Her arrival brought another working winemaker into a project whose bottles already depended on separate Sussex sites, reserve wines and long cellar decisions.
Place
Sugrue South Downs farms five vineyards across East and West Sussex. Rather than presenting one village as the whole story, the wines draw material from a spread of sites; a long-term rental expanded the vineyard area from three to 11 hectares. That wider footprint matters most in bottles such as Rock Story MV, where several harvests are assembled, and in Bee Tree wines, where a vineyard name narrows attention to one place.
England is the country on the label; Sussex is the practical frame for the range. The sparkling wines use the slow work of reserve wine and lees ageing to build body and finish, while Bonkers V2 shows that the same regional base can also carry a still, oak-fermented Chardonnay.
Soil And Site
Coldharbour is a 7.35-hectare West Sussex vineyard, planted in 2005 and owned by the Hunt family. Its scale is a useful reminder that Sugrue South Downs works with vineyard parcels beyond its own land, so the range is shaped by a network of sites rather than a single estate block.
Bee Tree became the producer’s first owned vineyard in May 2023. Its name appears on a 2021 Blanc de Noir and a 2019 Pinot Meunier Rosé Brut, turning a vineyard acquisition into bottles with a more specific site reference than the multi-vintage Rock Story.
Story
The project began with one small planting at Storrington Priory in 2006 and reached the market through The Trouble With Dreams 2009. Selling that first vintage in 2013 turned a planted Sussex vineyard into a working wine label, then the operation widened through rented and contracted vineyard land.
The subsequent expansion from three to 11 hectares gave Dermot and Ana more fruit to direct into separate sparkling and still wines. It also created room for two distinct kinds of bottle: blends that use reserve wine to carry continuity across harvests, and site-named Bee Tree releases whose grape material stays closer to one named vineyard.
Vineyards And Cellar
The cellar work is clearest where the range departs from a single-vintage sparkling model. Rock Story MV combines six vintages, from 2011 through 2022, with 40% reserve wine and lees ageing. Reserve components can add depth to the mid-palate, while lees ageing contributes a broader mousse and savoury texture beyond newly bottled fruit.
Bonkers V2 takes still Chardonnay through oak fermentation, flor ageing, controlled oxidation and vintage blending. Those choices move the wine away from a simple fresh-fruit Chardonnay profile: oak and oxygen bring savoury notes and fuller texture, while flor ageing adds another layer of yeast-derived character.
Wines
The Trouble With Dreams is the historical starting point: a 2009 sparkling wine that became the producer’s first release. Rock Story MV is the multi-vintage sparkling bottle, built from six English vintages and a substantial reserve-wine share; its role is continuity of texture and dry, lees-shaped structure across more than one harvest.
Bee Tree Blanc de Noir 2021 and Bee Tree Pinot Meunier Rosé Brut 2019 bring the range closer to a named vineyard. The Blanc de Noir is a sparkling wine from dark-skinned grapes made in a white-wine style, while the Pinot Meunier rosé carries its grape in the name and its colour in the glass. Bonkers V2 stands apart as still Chardonnay, with oak, flor and controlled oxidation creating a more savoury, textural wine than the sparkling bottles.
In The Glass
Across the sparkling wines, look first for mousse and then for the balance between fruit, lees character and dry finish. Rock Story MV’s reserve wine and time on lees should register as body and savoury texture rather than only immediate fruit, with acidity keeping the palate moving through the finish.
Bonkers V2 takes a different sensory line. Chardonnay fruit meets oak fermentation, flor ageing and controlled oxidation, so its interest lies in savoury, oxidative notes and weight on the palate. The finish should feel shaped by texture and oak as much as by citrus-like freshness.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with Rock Story MV. It is a multi-vintage English sparkling wine assembled from six vintages between 2011 and 2022, with 40% reserve wine and lees ageing. Its mousse, dry structure and savoury texture bring together the producer’s interest in sparkling wine, cellar ageing and blending across harvests without narrowing the picture to one vineyard or one year.
Anecdote
In May 2023, Sugrue South Downs purchased Bee Tree, its first owned vineyard. The project had started in 2006 with Dermot Sugrue planting a small vineyard at Storrington Priory in West Sussex, then grew through a broader patchwork of vineyard arrangements. By the time a long-term rental had expanded the working area from three to 11 hectares, the producer was farming five vineyards across East and West Sussex. Bee Tree changed the ownership part of that story: it became the first vineyard held by Sugrue South Downs itself. Its name now appears on bottles including Bee Tree Blanc de Noir 2021 and Bee Tree Pinot Meunier Rosé Brut 2019.
Final Word
Sugrue South Downs is most useful to approach through the contrast inside its own range: Rock Story MV for reserve-wine sparkling texture, Bee Tree for a named-vineyard angle, and Bonkers V2 for still Chardonnay shaped by oak, flor and oxygen.
Sources
- https://www.sugruesouthdowns.com/pages/about
- https://www.the-buyer.net/people/producer/sugrue-south-downs-dermot-england-dean
- https://www.irishtimes.com/food/2026/06/02/the-irishman-who-pioneered-britains-wine-production-and-now-makes-wine-for-the-king/
- https://www.jancisrobinson.com/producers/sugrue-south-downs
- https://www.indigowine.com/producer/sugrue-south-downs/
- https://www.sugruesouthdowns.com/products/bonkers-v2
- https://www.sugruesouthdowns.com/products/rock-story-mv
- https://handpickedwines.se/produkt/bee-tree-vineyard-blanc-de-noir-sparkling/
- https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews/united-kingdom/england/bee-tree-by-sugrue-pinot-meunier-rose-brut-east-sussex-98845/